Who's at Fault for all the Flab?

November 25, 2008

According to a 2004 Canadian Community Health survey, 23% of Canadian adults are obese! To make matters worse, researchers believe that this number has increased since then.

If we focus on what these individuals have been eating, who is to blame? Is it the individuals who gorge on a BigMac® combo jam-packed with 1350 calories, or is it the corporation who is selling these unhealthy products and spending millions of dollars on advertising to entice them?

If you had asked me this question 10 years ago I would have placed the majority of the blame on the consumer. Yes, it may be difficult to turn down a delicious looking burger, but I believe that many consumers knew the health risks and decided to ignore them.

Today however, things are different. Many companies are making it exceedingly difficult for consumers to make healthy choices. Take McDonald’s for example. They communicate in their marketing message that they care about the health of their customers and that they offer ‘healthy’ salads; however, the salads are in fact very unhealthy. Some of their salads are actually less healthy than the famous BigMac®.

Unfortunately, the McDonald’s salad is only one of many products that are not healthy and yet have creative marketing messages to convince the consumer otherwise. This makes it very difficult to decipher what is healthy and what is not. It is because of this shift that I believe a large portion of the blame for obesity should be placed on the corporations for being dishonest.

Although in the short term this marketing tactic may prove very successful and profitable for many organizations. I believe that if they are not careful they will pay considerably for this mistake. In the long term, as consumers become more educated, they will realize the truth behind all the false claims and false promises.

A long term positive customer experience needs to be built on honesty and trust. In the case of these companies, I think they are misleading their trusting consumers and sacrificing a lasting positive customer experience for short term profits. In any type of relationship this is a dangerous move.

I welcome your thoughts on this issue.

Briana Southward
Consultant / Torque Customer Strategy

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